What is the name of Google’s virtual assistant, first announced in 2016?

Google Assistant is the virtual assistant first announced by Google in 2016.

Google introduced Assistant at its I/O developer conference in May 2016 alongside the Google Home smart speaker and the messaging app Allo. It was designed to understand conversational requests rather than rely only on fixed voice commands.

Google Assistant expanded beyond phones and speakers to watches, cars, televisions, headphones, and other devices. It could answer questions, set reminders, control smart-home equipment, play media, and perform searches.

A common mix-up is confusing Google Assistant with Google Now. Google Now was an earlier Google service focused on predictive information cards, while Assistant was built as a more interactive conversational helper. Google Assistant is also distinct from Google Gemini, which Google later used as the name for its generative artificial-intelligence assistant and model family.